Chroniclers say that when the Mongols took Baghdad in 1258, the Tigris ran black with ink. So many books from the city's libraries, including the House of Wisdom, were thrown into it.

1258

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The event

• Mongol sack of Baghdad1258 · Baghdad. The Mongol army of Hulagu stormed and sacked Baghdad, and the last Abbasid caliph, al-Musta'sim, was executed. The destruction of the caliphal capital and its libraries symbolically ended the Islamic Golden Age.

13th century

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